Ill Met by Moonlight
Background "There are stories in Falkreath of a strange vagrant who savagely killed a little girl." Walkthrough In Falkreath, the Dragonborn begins this quest by asking Mathies Caerellia, "who died," and then speaking to Sinding, a prisoner in the Falkreath Barracks. Alternatively, Sinding can be spoken to directly to start the quest. He will tell the Dragonborn of a rare animal, The Prince of the Hunt, that needs to be killed to appease to Hircine. Sinding gives the Dragonborn the Cursed Ring of Hircine that will randomly transform them into a werewolf. After that, he escapes. After killing the animal, its spirit will appear and Hircine will speak through it. He will command the Dragonborn to go to the place where Sinding has fled, and to kill him to gain favor with Hircine. Once arriving at Bloated Man's Grotto, the Dragonborn will meet some hunters, who are outmatched by the werewolf, Sinding. The Dragonborn can choose to kill Sinding or to ally with him and kill all the hunters. The reward received varies depending on this choice: #If Sinding is killed, and his skin taken, Hircine appears to reward the Dragonborn with the Savior's Hide, a leather-based light armor which gives magic and poison resist. #If the Dragonborn kills the hunters, Hircine will appear upon leaving the grotto and commend the Dragonborn for turning the hunt "inside out," giving his blessing and transforming the ring into the Ring of Hircine. This ring gives the Dragonborn unlimited werewolf transformations. ##The Dragonborn must already have the power to transform into a werewolf in order for this ring to take effect. #Both items can be obtained by killing all the hunters and then removing Sinding's skin. ##Trick Sinding into believing that you are helping him by killing the hunters, then meet Hircine outside where he commends you for turning the hunt "inside out," and gives you his blessing and the ring. Afterwards, re-enter the grotto, follow the path once more and find Sinding (he will be in werewolf form) and kill him. Skin Sinding and Hircine will appear thus allowing you to obtain the Savior's Hide. Both items count toward the achievement: Oblivion Walker, making the achievement obtainable even if another Daedric quest is failed. ##If the above doesn't work then simply change the order by killing and skinning Sindling immediately after killing the hunters and talking to him. Back out of the conversation as soon as the Hircine spirit appears. Run out of the grotto and the stag spirit will appear and bless the ring breaking the curse. Return into the grotto find the corpse of Sindling and carry on the conversation with the Hircine spirit and he will bless the skin turing it into Savior's Hide. Both choices remove the Cursed Ring of Hircine from your inventory. 'Note: '''The Cursed Ring can turn you into a werewolf, if you choose to continue through the cave like this you will need to transform into your normal form before you can talk to Sindling after killing the hunters OR for the stag Hircine spirit outside to appear after killing Sindling. To transform back the easiest way is to wait for a few hours. ''For some reason this quest keeps you in werewolf form for a very very long time. *v=Um8zUwJOjQ0 Detailed video guide Conclusion "I met Sinding, a werewolf that the Daedric Lord Hircine had punished by preventing his transformations. I helped kill him as a service to Hircine, and have been rewarded with Savior's Hide." "I met Sinding, a werewolf who the Daedric Lord Hircine had punished by preventing his transformations. I defended him against the hunters that Hircine sent to end his life, and earned his friendship." Trivia Four chests can be found in this area, even after it is changed during the quest: *After entering into the main part of the cavern, you will see the first of a few waterfalls to your immediate right. A chest is hidden behind a dead, hollowed out trunk on ledge before this initial waterfall (see first picture). *A locked chest is hidden at the bottom of the small water pool under the initial waterfall. *An unlocked chest can be found in the built up area, in front of the Talos Shrine and statue. *A master locked chest is hidden near the dead deer on a ledge behind boulders (see second picture). There is also a gold ore deposite at the top of one of the rock mounds overlooking the entire cave. *If you chose to kill Sinding either before or after helping him kill the hunters, he cannot be resurrected via console after he has been skinned. This is because at that point he has been scripted to die. *If you take Sinding's Skin after killing him it will briefly be in your inventory and is a gray, slightly more concave version of a Goat Hide. Trivia *"Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania," is Oberon's first line in A Midsummer Night's Dream, a play written by William Shakespeare. *There is also a movie with this name: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049357/ . Bugs *If you are wearing the Ring of Namira when you receive the Cursed Ring of Hercine from sinding, you will forever be able to feed off of bodies and receive the bonuses for doing so. * It is possible that you'll have to wait for in-game month to pass before you re-enter the cave to kill Sinding to receive Savior's Hide. *Near the end of the grotto when siding with Sinding, all the NPCs in the area may become permanently invisible. *It is possible for the Great White Elk to relocate to a position on the map beyond the world limits, making it impossible to finish this quest. This occurred before I even saw the Elk. *If the Great White Elk is trapped in the mountain, try using "Raise Zombie" or a similar spell or scroll to bring him back to life. Then you can kill him again, and the Aspect of Hircine will follow the corpse. *This quest tends to become broken If you do not kill the Great White Elk upon your first encounter. It will run away and can end up on a mountain top that is unreachable. Meet up with a few other fellow hunters walking on a path as the elks are found commonly around and use their help to take down the elk. * It is possible to obtain both artifacts by helping Sinding kill all the hunters, and once you finish that, talk to Sinding, leave the cave causing Hircine to show and reward you the ring, then go back into the cave kill and skin Sinding which in turn causes Hircine to show up and reward you the hide. Or if you kill all the hunters then without talking to Sinding kill him, Hircine will appear and give you Savior's Hide then go outside and talk to Hircine's Elk Spirit and he will uncurse the ring. Later in the game Sinding can be found wandering the countryside, despite NPC's not reacting to him, he will respond with "Never thought I'd see you again." if you get closer. (There is a possibility thereafter if the glitch is done correctly that if one tries to cast spells used a conjuration spell that you will be stuck in hostile stance. You can correct this by going back to a previous save. Preferably the most recent auto save, to maintain the ring and Savior's Hide.) *After wearing the Cursed ring, and turning into a werewolf manually, you might not be able to turn back into your old self. *Sinding can get stuck in the pool of water in his cell, never making it up the stairs to be able to speak with you, making the quest impossible to start or continue. This can be corrected by using the third level (2nd works too) of unrelenting force on him then exiting and returning to the jail. *Sinding may also turn hostile if you attempt to heal him with the Healing Hands restoration spell. *It is possible to have two Sindings after completing the quest by aiding him. If the hunters are defeated, the ally Sinding may simply freeze in place, only uttering "Never thought I'd see you again", you will then see a second Sinding camped in werewolf form before the exit, with this glitch it is possible to obtain both the ring and the armor without technically killing Sinding completely. *If you decide to tell Sinding you will kill him, and end up killing (accidentally or purposely) the hunters, the quest may glitch and Sinding will follow you as if you were hunting the hunters. The quest will not progress and Sinding will be invulnerable to damage. The only way to fix this is to reload a previous save. *It is possible, that after killing Great White Elk, Sinding will remain in the cell, even though everyone says that he escaped. *Sometimes the ring will not take effect after Hircine removes the curse. Should this happen reload the game and go get the ring again. *It is possible to keep the Cursed Ring of Hircine while still getting one or both of the final quest rewards. After defeating the hunters, although you cannot remove the Cursed Ring you can drop or store it. Store it in one of the chests inside and when you leave Hircine will still give you the uncursed ring even though you do not have it in your inventory. Go back inside and retrieve the cursed ring then kill Sinding if you wish to get the Savior's Hide. Note: Do not store the Cursed Ring on a dead body as these will disappear after speaking with Hircine. *When using fast travel, there can occur a transformation which the player can not recover from. To avoid this, travel to the grotto manually. *Getting both items for this quest(Savior's Hide/Ring of Hircine) does not always count as 2 for the Oblivion Walker Achievement, it may only count as 1. Confirmed both ways on 360, unknown as to why it is different for some. Patch 3 may have fixed an issue with both only counting as 1. *If you travel to Bloated Man's Grotto to kill Sinding, but flee back to Falkreath Jail before killing him, he may appear back in his cell in Werewolf form. You can kill him here through the bars (with assistance from the jail guard), but since the cell cannot be opened you won't be able to skin him to complete the quest.*If you are in Werewolf form you are still able to talk to Sinding telling him you were sent here to kill him. Gallery Hircine.png|Ring of Hircine as it appears in game IllMetByMoonlightMoonCC.png|Ill Met By Moonlight Moon Category:Skyrim: Falkreath Quests